Arrow Prayers
"Pray without ceasing." - 1 Thessalonians 5:17
We've all heard the classic Scripture reference from 1 Thessalonians 5:17 which goes, "pray without ceasing." But what does that actually look like? Surely this can't mean knees bent, complete silence and our eyes closed all day every day? Even though we do read in Scripture about Jesus leaving His disciples to go away in prayer (Luke 5:16), we know that even Jesus didn't participate in that type of prayer all day long obviously because we also read stories of Him performing many miracles and teaching His disciples and crowds.
So what does this look like? Arrow prayers. I got that term from my Bible school days and I think it is quite fitting. Arrow prayers are short, practical and fervent prayers. One great example of this we find in the Old Testament in the book of Nehemiah. During the time of this book, the walls around Jerusalem had been ruined and Nehemiah, also the cupbearer for the king, was deeply saddened by this and decided to approach the king about returning to restore the walls. As he approaches the king and they speak of the matter we read "So I prayed to the God of heaven" (Neh. 2:4b), but there is seemingly no pause between the king's question and his answer. Arrow prayer.
We continue to see this pattern throughout the Book of Nehemiah. Intentional, in the moment, short prayer. If all our prayers were short as such and we never drew away for those longer times of prayer, one might argue we have lack of reverence or recognition of our need for God. But the example we see in Nehemiah is just the opposite. His constant, short, but fervent, prayers reveal his understanding that we need God every moment.
Let us follow the same example. We see it in Jesus' life too, momentarily breaking for prayer. But that could be a whole another post so we won't get into that today. Whether it be in a moment of confusion and breaking for a moment to ask for wisdom, a moment of frustration and breaking for a moment to ask for patience, whatever it may be - let us break and send up arrow prayers. We need Thee every moment Lord! May our prayer lives be a reflection of that.